Nesting Instinct
by Artificial Lullaby
Summary: For an annoying, bony, very very warm nobody, Axel sure makes a great denning companion. AkuRoku friendship stuffs.


Okay, so Hi. I wrote this in the middle of the night, so forgive me if it's a bit nonsensical in places. I dunno why i wrote it. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Hope you like it.x

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He had known for a while that Roxas was one of the weirder people he had met in his non-existence. He could wield the keyblade, for a start, a feat that usually required a heart, usually, and he would throw himself into battle without properly defending himself. He made up for it by being insanely fast and light on his feet, more so than any of the other organization members. He also loved sea-salt ice-cream, which was just odd, as far as Axel was concerned. He ate it because Roxas provided it, and he wasn't about to turn down food, even if he wasn't fond of it. The boy had been slightly more withdrawn recently, dark circles coloured under his eyes indicating a lack of sleep – his actions were more delayed and lethargic, his voice slightly slurred when he spoke. Axel hadn't really thought anything of it.

Axel finally realised just how strange Roxas was one day in the Organization's castle, in The World That Never Was, when he was wandering through the hallways and he heard a loud thump and a muffled curse. He looked to the nearest door, inscribed with Roxas' own double keyblade insignia, and walked up to it, and pressed his ear to it.

"Hey, Roxas? You okay?" he called, placing his hand on the handle. There was another expletive from inside the room, before footsteps came towards the door, and it opened a couple of inches, Axel following it closely until he ended up face to face with the owner of the room.

"What do you want, Axel?" he asked, a faint blush painting his cheeks. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and heavy, as though he had just been asleep.

Axel shrugged, lifting his hand away from the door. "I just wanted to check you were okay. Sounded like you dropped something in there."

Roxas shook his head briefly, his eyes never leaving the taller Nobody's face. "I'm fine."

Axel smiled at him, but Roxas just scowled back, pushing the door shut with a click. The red-head stood for a moment, blinking at the closed door, before he shrugged and turned away. He had barely taken two steps before there was another thud and a louder curse coming from the doorway. He turned on his heel and turned back to the door, not even hesitating before he pushed it open.

The first thing that struck him about the room was how plain and clinical it was – there was no colour to any of it, he realised. Except for the little blond boy the room was pristine and white – there was very little furniture, and what there was in the room was currently gathered in one corner, with a very frustrated looking Roxas glaring over at him.

"Get out," he spat, his blue eyes narrowed dangerously at him. A cold bolt of fear shot through Axel's gut, and he had to fight the urge to turn and flee like a little girl.

"What the hell are you doing?" Axel said as he shuffled across the room. Roxas glared at him harder, if possible, and the other nobody stopped a few paces away.

"Nothing," Roxas hissed back, before he walked over to Axel and grabbed the top of his arm and pushed him back towards the door. As he was pushed backwards, the red-head cast his eye over the little construct in the corner, and as he realised what it was, he smiled.

The simple metal frame of the bed had been pushed into the corner, the sprung wire that usually covered it removed and pushed into the opposite corner. The book case – totally devoid of any reading material – was stuffed full of pillows and pushed into the corner, meeting at a right angle with the dresser, which had its drawers removed and replaced with pillows. The curtains had been removed from their tracks and thrown over the top, and the white quilt was pushed back into the joint formed by the dresser and the bookcase.

"Are you making a den?" he asked, a vulpine smile spreading across his face. Roxas flushed a strawberry shade of red, and Axel laughed at him, not stopping when he got thumped in the arm, hard, by the smaller nobody. "That's so cute!"

Roxas opened his mouth to protest, but the taller man just pulled him into a hug, which the blond boy tried to pull out of, but when he couldn't extract himself from the surprisingly comforting grasp, he just gave him and stood there for a moment.

"It's not cute," he mumbled into Axel's cloak.

Axel's grin stretched further up his face. "It is! It's totally adorable. Little Roxas is _nesting_."

Roxas growled suddenly, and fought his way out of the thin, bony embrace of the other nobody. "I'm not some pregnant chick, you know."

Axel reached out and ruffled his hair, before his hand was slapped away and the shorted blond turned and shuffled back over to his den. "Get out."

Roxas dropped to his hands and knees, before crawling into his carefully constructed mass of quilts and sheets and pillows, giving a ghost of a smile as he heard the door click shut. But when something nudged at the back of his thigh, he tried desperately to fight down the urge to summon up his keyblades and beat the living shit out of whatever it was nudging into him. And when he turned to see a familiar flock of fire-red hair, he had to try twice as hard to quell the urge.

"Budge over, Rox," he said, systematically pushing Roxas into the little den with his head.

Roxas was about to protest, but a simple push at his elbow from Axel's annoyingly strong fingers and he had tumbled forwards onto the pile of bedding, face first. He lay there for a moment, before he lifted his head to see an empty doorway to his den. He didn't dare breathe a sigh of relief, and found it was a good thing too – Axel's skinny limb's encroached on his personal space, wrapping around his waist and pulling him back so he was flush with the older nobody's chest, curled up on the floor of the den.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, his voice lacking any sort of edge. He yawned, and he could feel Axel chuckling behind him.

"Nesting," he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "With you."

"I don't need you to nest with me. I was perfectly fine in here by myself before you came along."

Axel snorted, his breath warm against Roxas' neck, sending a shiver down his spine involuntarily. "Yeah, that's why you've been looking so tired recently. Look, just don't worry about it. I'll make sure you get some sleep."

And despite his earlier protests, Roxas found that although Axel was skinny and bony, and very very warm, he was, indeed, a nice denning partner – and besides, Roxas was too close to sleep all of a sudden to be protesting. He hardly noticed the hand petting his hair softly, or the soft kiss to the back of his neck. He fell asleep smiling, strangely content in the other nobody's arms.

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The line about the pregnant chick - the nesting instinct is something some pregnant women get - the urge to prepare the home/habitat for a new baby. I think for Roxas it's more of a leftover from Sora than anything, really - it's more making an actual nest/den/thing here than preparing for some huge event. So yeah...


End file.
